Driver pleads guilty in death of pedestrian, says he thought he had hit a deer

Johnny McKinney fights back tears Monday as he pleads guilty in Lake County Common Pleas Court to a fatal hit and run crash in Madison Township last February.

Johnny McKinney said he would have stopped to help a Madison Township man but didn’t realize he hit him.
“I thought I hit a large deer or some sort of animal,” the 46-year-old Painesville man said. “I never thought for a second it could have been anything else. I didn’t see nothing else on the road that night. I didn’t see what I hit.”
Prosecuting attorney Alexandra Kutz said McKinney — whose driver’s license was suspended at the time — actually struck 28-year-old Joseph Gersin of Madison Township.
McKinney had been driving a 1998 Honda Passport north on Hubbard Road in Madison Township the evening of Feb. 22.
Shortly after 11 p.m., concerned citizens called 911 after finding the victim in the road at the intersection of Hubbard and Tarbell roads.
Gersin was taken to the Lake Health Emergency Department in Madison Township, where he was pronounced dead.
“(McKinney) had an accident, failed to stop and did not call police,” Kutz said. “He was aware that what he hit had to have been very large, but he did not stop.”
McKinney pleaded guilty as charged Monday in Lake County Common Pleas Court to a felony charge of failure to stop after an accident and misdemeanor driving under a financial responsibility license suspension.
“Being under suspension, yeah, I did get scared, so I did go the next street over to go home,” McKinney, who lived in Madison Township at the time, told Judge Eugene A. Lucci.
Once home, McKinney said he did not notice any major damage to his car’s front end. He added that he had not been under the influence of drugs or alcohol, either.
McKinney was in court with Assistant Lake County Public Defender James Mathews. He had no prior felonies.
McKinney faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 12.
He remains free on a personal bond.